Harris hits Trump over 'protector' of women comment

Vice President Harris slammed former President Trump for saying at a rally on Wednesday that he would be women’s “protector,” a phrase he used two months ago and again this week at a rally in Wisconsin.

“Donald Trump thinks he should get to make decisions about what you do with your body,” Harris wrote in a post on the social platform X. “Whether you like it or not.”

The Democratic nominee was responding to a clip of Trump saying at his Wednesday rally that he was advised against calling himself women’s protector. He made the remark this week in the context of protecting women from migrants committing crimes after entering the country illegally.

“My people told me about four weeks ago, I would say, ‘No, I want to protect the people. I want to protect the women of our country. I want to protect the women,'” Trump said at a Green Bay, Wis., rally.

“They said, ‘Sir, I just think it’s inappropriate for you to say.’ I pay these guys a lot of money. Can you believe it?” Trump continued. “I said, ‘Well, I’m going to do it whether the women like it or not. I’m going to protect them. I’m going to protect them from migrants coming in. I’m going to protect them from foreign countries that want to hit us with missiles and lots of other things.'”

The exchange comes less than a week before Election Day, as the former president struggles to close the gender gap between him and the vice president.

Harris aides quickly seized on the comment from the rally and argued Trump’s comments showed Trump does not care about female voters.

“Defining line of this campaign? Trump: ‘I’m gonna do it whether the women like it or not,'” Harris campaign spokesperson James Singer posted on X.

“Saying the quiet part out loud there,” Lauren Hitt, another Harris campaign aide, posted on X.

Trump at a late September rally sought to directly address the women in the crowd, telling them, “I am your protector. I want to be your protector. As president, I have to be your protector. I hope you don’t make too much of it. I hope the fake news doesn’t go, ‘Oh, he wants to be their protector.’ Well, I am. As president, I have to be your protector.”